Encampment 

Chicago  Centennial 
1903 


Indian  Encampment 

At  Lincoln  Park,  Chicago 
Sept.  26  to  Oct.  i 

1903 


In  Honor  of  the 

City's  Centennial  Anniversary 


By 

Edward  B.  Clark 


Published  by 

The  Chicago  Centennial 

Committee 


DEACCESSIONED  BY 

CHICAGO 
PRINTED 


FAITHOKN  PRINTING  Co. 
CHICAGO. 


Indian  Encampment 

IF  you  would  know  the  Chicago  of  a  century  ago,  look  about  you. 
The  dead  past  lives  anew  in  this  Indian  village.  Forget  the 

great,  throbbing  city  which  lies  just  beyond,  and  here,  amid 

these  wigwams  peopled  by  a  strange  race,  find  the  picture  of 
conditions  existing  before  the  white  man  and  his  civilization  came 
to  this  Lake  Michigan  shore. 

These  men,  these  women  and  children,  these  huts  and  these 
implements  of  war  and  the  chase,  are  the  same  to-day  as  on  that 
yesterday  of  a  century  ago.  These  Indians,  the  Pottawattomies, 
the  Winnebagos  and  their  brothers  of  the  other  tribes,  are  here 
camped,  probably  for  the  last  time,  on  the  ground  once  held  by 
their  fathers  by  inherent  right. 

There  are  those  among  the  chiefs  present  who  still  hold  to  the 
belief  that  this  land  is  theirs  and  that  those  who  have  dispossessed 
them  did  it  by  means  of  that  might  which  makes  right.  Strange 
as  it  may  appear  to  the  white  possessors  of  the  soil,  strong  in  their 
hundred  years'  holding,  there  are  those  among  the  temporary 
sojourners  in  this  village  who  still  have  hope  that  recompense  may 
be  made  them  some  day  for  this  land  which  they  yielded  up  when 
the  ruling  race  came. 

There  are  gathered  here  in  the  village  which  makes  such  a 
striking  feature  of  the  celebration  of  Chicago's  birthday,  the 
representatives  of  six  great  tribes  of  red  men  who  once  lived 
either  upon  this  very  spot  or  its  immediate  vicinity.  Just  where 
these  Indians  are  met  to-day  there  dwelt  a  century  ago,  the  tribe  of 
Pottawattomies  under  their  chiefs  Pokagon  and  Poteneebee.  Near 
them,  and  at  times  disputing  the  Pottawattomies'  right  to  the  shore 
at  the  river's  mouth,  lived  the  Winnebagos,  the  Ottawas,  the 
Menominees,  the  Chippewas  and  the  Sacs  and  Foxes. 


Representatives  of  all  these  tribes,  the  descendants  of  the 
warriors  and  hunters  of  the  first  Pokagon's  time,  are  gathered  here 
to-day  to  do  honor  to  the  birthday  of  the  city  whose  rise  meant 
their  scattering  to  different  and  distant  hunting  grounds. 

The  Pottawattomie  Indians  assembled  number  forty  in  all, 
braves,  squaws  and  pappooses.  Charles  Pokagon,  grandson  of  the 
chief  who  saw  the  first  white  man  set  foot  on  this  shore,  is  here 
in  command  of  the  remnant  of  his  once  great  tribe. 

From  Wisconsin  and  Nebraska  have  come  from  their  reserva- 
tions the  Winnebagos  who  one  hundred  years  ago  traded  and  fought 
with  the  Pottawattomies  on  the  site  of  Chicago.  Chief  Noginkah, 
Striking  Tree,  is  in  command  of  the  forty  followers  who  came  with 
him  to  take  part  in  Chicago's  birthday  festivities. 

From  Northern  Michigan  has  come  a  score  of  the  Ottawas 
nearly  all  that  is  left  of  a  once  numerous  people.  Chief  Black- 
bird is  in  charge.  Ask  Chief  Blackbird  his  age  and  he  will 
answer  "Nin  ki-tis  nin-do-twak."  (I  am  one  hundred  years  old.) 

Chief  Blackbird  is  celebrating  with  Chicago  his  centennial 
anniversary. 

Chief  Pushnateka  led  the  twenty-five  representatives  of  the 
Sacs  and  Fox  nation  from  their  reservations  in  Iowa  and  the 
Indian  territory  to  this  Lincoln  Park  village.  Pushnateka  is  the 
war  chief  of  his  tribe,  while  with  him  is  Sawahghasah,  the  civil 
chief,  the  leader  who  attends  to  all  of  his  people's  affairs  with  the 
government  of  the  United  States. 

From  Northern  Wisconsin  have  come  twenty  representatives  of 
the  Menominees,  under  the  guidance  of  Chief  Lone  Star. 

The  Chippewas,  who  are  to-day  perhaps  more  numerous  than 
any  of  the  tribes  represented,  are  gathered  in  this  village  to  the 
number  of  fifty  men,  women  and  children.  Their  leaders  are 
Chiefs  Wawahbasha  and  Chicag,  the  latter  a  namesake  of  the  city, 
though  perhaps  it  were  better  to  put  it  the  other  way,  for  the  city 
bears  the  name,  with  a  slight  addition,  of  one  of  Chicag's  ancestor 
chiefs. 

All  the  Indians  encamped  in  the  village  came  to  the  city  at 
the  personal  solicitation  of  Mr.  T.  R.  Roddy  of  Chicago.  Mr. 
Roddy,  whose  father  was  a  trader  among  the  Winnebagos  of 
Wisconsin,  was  brought  up  with  the  boys  of  that  tribe  of  Indians 
as  his  playmates.  He  learned  their  language  and  learned  to 
sympathize  with  them  in  their  ways.  When  he  grew  to  manhood 


CHIEF  SIMON  POKAGON. 


he  became- their  counselor  when  they  stood  in  need  of  counsel,  and 
at  the  death  of  Black  Hawk,  the  nephew  of  the  chief  by  whose 
name  we  know  one  great  Indian  war,  he  was  elected  their  chief, 
being  given  the  name  of  White  Buffalo,  a  name  that  to  the  Indians 
represents  the  highest  form  of  compliment. 

The  Indian  village  is  a  replica  of  the  villages  which  existed 
along  the  Michigan  shore  one  hundred  years  ago.  There  are  present 
about  two  hundred  braves,  squaws  and  children.  A  majority  of 
them  live  to-day,  when  on  their  reservations,  in  just  such  tepees, 
huts  and  wigwams  as  are  here  shown.  The  few  who  have  built 
houses  after  the  manner  of  the  white  man,  have  tepees  within  the 
shadow  of  the  roof,  and  in  them  live  most  of  their  time.  The 
white  man's  house  may  represent  progress,  but  to  the  Indian  it 
does  not  represent  comfort.  He  wishes  to  live  as  did  his  ancestors 
in  the  years  before  Chicago  was  born. 

The  huts  of  bark  and  rushes  are  those  of  the  Chippewas.  The 
Winnebagos  have  wigwams  of  skin,  the  Pottawattomies  and  the 
Ottawas  are  in  tepees,  while  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  are  in  rush  houses. 

The  Indians  are  in  the  costumes  worn  by  their  ancestors,  and  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  though  most  of  them  live  within  sight  of  civiliza- 
tion, they  appear  at  all  times  in  clothing  of  the  kind  which  they  are 
here  seen  wearing.  Some  of  these  wilderness  dwellers  are  Christians, 
but  the  greater  part  of  those  assembled  are  true  to  the  religion  of 
their  forbears  and  still  perform  the  mystic  rites  and  ceremonies 
which  marked  the  worship  of  the  Great  Spirit  as  he  was  conceived 
by  the  Indian  mind. 

Daily  during  the  continuance  of  the  encampment  the  In- 
dians will  engage  in  all  the  sports  and  games  in  which  they  in- 
dulge on  the  reservations  during  the  hours  of  relaxation  from  toil 
and  hunting.  There  will  be  canoe  and  dugout  races,  foot  races  and 
swimming  races,  canoe  tilting,  mock  marriage  ceremonies,  the 
weird  scalp  and  buffalo  dances  and  contests  in  bow  and  arrow 
shooting,  in  which  the  Indian  is  an  expert  from  his  early  boyhood. 

One  of  the  spectacular  features  of  the  encampment  will  be  the 
attack  on  the  block  house,  which  is  a  reproduction  of  one  of  the 
defenses  of  the  original  Fort  Dearborn,  planned  and  built  by  Cap- 
tain Whistler  just  one  hundred  years  ago. 

Special  mention  should  be  made  of  the  la  crosse  game  which 
will  be  played  on  the  baseball  ground  at  Lincoln  Park.  This 
game  is  a  favorite  with  the  Indians,  and,  for  that  matter,  with  many 


RUSH  WIGWAM  OF  WINNEBAGOS. 


whites,  though  it  is  essentially  a  red  man's  game.  It  is  interesting 
and  exciting  in  the  extreme,  being  full  of  dash  and  go  from  the 
start. 

The  life  of  the  Irfdians  in  the  village  will  be  that  of  their  an- 
cestors and  that  of  the  majority  of  those  present  when  they  are  at 
home  in  the  northern  woods  or  on  the  western  prairies.  They  will 
cook  by  means  of  camp  fires  at  the  doors  of  their  wigwams,  and 
the  women  will  ply  their  art  of  moccasin  making,  matting  weaving 
and  bead  work,  while  the  men  will  make  birch  bark  canoes  and 
tan  the  skins  of  animals. 

Touching  again  the  matter  of  sports,  it  may  be  said  that 
there  have  been  gathered  together  in  this  village  the  Indians  known 
to  be  the  best  canoe  men  in  the  whole  country.  Their  races  will  be 
genuine  contests.  One  branch  of  the  Chippewa  is  partial  to 
dugouts,  and  these  boats  will  be  shown  in  several  varieties  and  will 
be  used  in  the  racing. 

Canoe  tilting  is  a  favorite  water  sport  of  the  Indians.  They 
stand  in  their  canoes  and  each  contestant  tries  by  means  of  his 
pole  to  throw  his  opponent  into  the  water.  It  is  exciting  but  good 
humored  play. 

When  the  attack  upon  the  block  house  takes  place,  the  scene 
enacted  will  have  all  the  semblance  of  a  real  battle,  and,  while  the 
last  fight  between  the  Indians  and  the  whites  on  the  ground  upon 
which  Chicago  stands  took  place  generations  ago,  it  is  of  interest 
to  note  that  there  will  be  present  watching  the  demonstration  of  the 
players,  a  man  who  remembers  distinctly  the  great  fight  under  the 
cottonwood  tree  on  the  lake  shore,  in  the  year  1812,  where  many 
soldiers  of  the  garrison  of  Fort  Dearborn  laid  down  their  lives  under 
the  rain  of  bullets  and  arrows  of  the  Pottawattomies.  O-gi-maw 
Mac-ke-te-pe-nas-sy,  Chief  Blackbird,  was  a  boy  nine  years  old  at 
the  time  that  Poteneebee  and  the  other  chiefs  attacked  Captain 
Heald  and  his  men  within  an  hour  after  their  evacuation  of  the  old 
fort.  The  chief  remembers  the  receipt  of  the  news  by  the  members 
of  his  tribe  of  this  victory  of  the  Indian  over  the  white  man  and  the 
ardent  hope  that  it  excited  in  the  breasts  of  the  braves  that  the  day 
was  not  yet  past  when  it  might  be  possible  for  the  aboriginal 
owners  of  the  soil  to  check  the  encroachments  of  the  alien  invaders. 

Every  Indian  present  in  the  village  has  heard  from  his  father 
and  his  grandfather  the  recital  of  the  tale  of  that  fight  of  the  long 


CHIEF   BLACKRIRD. 


ago.  White  men  always  speak-  of  the  battle  under  the  cotton- 
wood  as  a  "massacre,"  and  the  fight  has  gone  into  history  as  "The 
Fort  Dearborn  Massacre."  Simon  Pokagon,  son  of  a  chief  present  at 
the  fight,  always  resented  the  name  given  to  the  battle.  He  had 
heard  the  story  time  after  time  from  the  lips  of  his  father,  and  he 
has  told  it  time  after  time  to  his  son  Charles  Pokagon,  the  present 
chief  of  the  Pottawattomies.  Simon  Pokagon  died  about  four 
years  ago.  He  had  struggled  for  years  to  secure  from  the  United 
States  government  the  fulfillment  of  the  promises  made  to  his 
tribe  at  the  time  of  the  early  treaties,  and  in  part  he  succeeded. 
He  left  the  completion  of  his  work  to  his  son  Charles,  who  is  now  in 
the  village. 

In  the  year  1897,  Simon  Pokagon  made  an  arrangement  with 
the  late  Edward  G.  Mason,  President  of  the  Chicago  Historical 
Society,  to  come  to  the  city  to  tell  the  people,  at  a  great  public 
gathering,  the  Indian's  side  of  the  Fort  Dearborn  fight.  The 
holding  of  the  meeting  was  postponed  for  some  time  and  in  the 
interim  Mr.  Mason  died  and  the  proposed  gathering  was  not  held. 
Pokagon  outlined  the  speech  he  had  intended  to  make,  and  as  he 
gave  the  details,  with  one  hand  half  clinched  and  his  eye  bright  with 
kindled  indignation,  there  was  no  doubting  the  sincerity  of  his 
belief  in  that  which  he  uttered.  This  is  his  story: 

"A  sacred  treaty  was  entered  into  between  the  soldiers  at 
Fort  Dearborn  and  the  Pottawattomie  people.  The  soldiers  agreed 
to  do  some  things  in  the  way  of  giving  goods  to  the  Indians  in 
exchange  for  services.  The  details  of  the  treaty  I  do  not  know, 
but  it  was  the  breaking  of  this  agreement  that  angered  the  Indians. 
They  had  been  lied  to  from  the  first  time  they  [saw  the  white  man. 

"The  head  soldier  in  the  fort  agreed  only  the  day  before  he 
marched  out  that  some  of  the  things  which  he  must  leave  behind 
were  to  be  given  to  the  braves.  This  was  not  done.  They  did  get 
liquor  though — not  all  of  it,  but  too  much.  Was  it  the  Pottawatto- 
mies' fault  that  liquor  had  been  brought  out  from  the  far  east  to 
their  home  in  the  wilderness?  Was  it  the  Indian's  fault  that  the 
fire  in  the  liquor  made  him  mad?  Does  it  not  do  the  same  for  the 
white  man  ?  The  whites  had  stolen  lands  and  had  broken  promises ; 
was  there  not  cause  enough  for  a  fight? 

"A  'massacre'  they  say  it  was.  'The  Indians  were  treacher- 
ous.' The  fight  went  on  just  as  the  white  men  fight  one  another 
to-day  in  the  war  time.  You  would  speak  of  the  killing  of  the 


CHIEF  PUSHNATEKA,  OF  THE  SACS  AND  FOX,  AND  TWO  CHILDREN. 


women  and  children.  Do  you  know  that  one  white  man  was  shot 
that  day  as  he  was  directing  his  horse  where  the  Indian's  children 
were  hiding,  that  he  might  kill  them?  No  one  seems  to  know  this, 
yet  you  will  find  it  in  the  book  where  the  story  is  told  by  the 
trader's  daughter  who  was  there  that  day.  What  Pokagon  says 
is  true." 

Fort  Dearborn  was  built  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chicago  river  as 
a  result  of  the  treaty,  made  eight  years  before  its  construction,  by 
"Mad  Anthony"  Wayne  with  fifteen  tribes.  This  was  immediately 
after  tlie  battle  of  Fallen  Timbers,  where  Wayne  fought,  among 
other  Indians,  the  Pottawattomies  from  the  vicinity  of  Chicago. 
Because  of  his  impetuosity  at  that  fight  the  mad  general  was  given 
the  name  of  Tornado  by  the  Pottawattomies. 

The  Indians  ceded  only  a  small  part  of  the  present  site  of 
Chicago  in  that  treaty.  The  rest  of  the  land  was  taken  afterward. 
The  story  has  it  that  Simon  Pokagon 's  father  ceded  the  site  of  the 
city  to  the  government  at  the  price  of  three  cents  an  acre.  The 
son,  Pokagon,  always  insisted  that  only  a  part  of  the  territory 
embraced  in  the  present  city  was  included  in  the  sale  and  that  his 
tribe  is  the  rightful  owner  of  a  large  part  of  the  most  valuable  land 
in  the  great  city.  The  Pottawattomies  who  are  present  in  the 
Indian  village  at  this  centennial  celebration  believe  as  did  their 
chief,  and  it  was  but  little  more  than  a  year  ago  when  many  of  them 
seriously  considered  the  coming  to  Chicago  _to  squat  upon  certain 
lands,  in  the  hope  that  such  action  would  call  attention  to  their 
claim  and  force  its  settlement. 

After  the  ancestors  of  the  Indians  now  gathered  in  Chicago  had 
been  removed  from  the  neighborhood  of  the  city  to  different 
reservations,  it  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  Pottawattomies  to  be  sent  into 
Indiana  and  Michigan.  Near  Twin  Lakes,  Indiana,  the  Indians, 
many  of  whom  were  Christians,  had  a  little  chapel.  According  to 
the  Pottawattomie  version  of  the  affair,  they  were  told  one  day, 
just  twenty-two  years  after  the  fight  in  Chicago,  that  their  clergy- 
man wished  them  to  go  to  the  little  church.  As  many  of  the 
Indians  as  could  do  so  crowded  into  the  building,  and  while  there 
they  were  seized  by  soldiers  and  forced  to  take  up  the  march  under 
a  military  guard  for  a  new  reservation  in  the  west. 

The  other  Pottawattomies  and  some  of  theMenominees,  knowing 
that  it  would  be  useless  to  resist  the  force  of  the  government,  went 
west  peacefully,  the  only  band  remaining  being  that  under  Pokagan, 


T.  R  RODDY  (WHITE  BUFFALO). 


which  since  that  time  has  lived  in  Michigan,  though  a  few  scattered 
families  are  in  Indiana. 

The  block  house  which  is  shown  close  to  the  Indian  village  is  a 
replica  of  one  built  by  Captain  John  Whistler  as  a  part  of  the 
defenses  of  the  first  fortification  on  the  Chicago  river.  It  was 
not  known  until  the  year  1897  that  there  was  any  accurate  de- 
scription of  the  first  fort  in  existence.  Then  it  was  that  a  search 
of  the  government  archives  disclosed  the  original  plans  of  Captain 
Whistler,  drawn  by  his  own  hand  ninety-four  years  before. 
From  these  plans  a  model  of  the  first  fort  was  made  and  it  is  now 
on  exhibition  in  the  rooms  of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society. 
Captain  Whistler's  plan  showed  that  the  idea  which  had  been  held 
of  the  construction  of  the  .first  fort  was  erroneous.  The  block 
house  which  the  Indians  of  the  village  will  attack  is  the  counter- 
part of  one  which  stood  at  the  northwest  corner  of  the  first  Fort 
Dearborn,  at  a  spot  where  to-day  the  river  flows  under  Rush  Street 
bridge. 

There  probably  never  again  will  be  given  an  opportunity  to 
see  a  gathering  of  Indians  like  the  one  within  the  compass  of  this 
village.  Sadly  enough,  when  Chicago  comes  to  celebrate  its  second 
centennial  there  probably  will  be  left  no  recognizable  remnant  of 
these  five  assembled  tribes.  Chicago  to-day  bids  them  hail,  and 
hopes  that  the  day  long  may  be  deferred  before  the  other  and  final 
word,  farewell,  must  be  spoken. 


NOGINKAH,  ACTING  CHIEF  OF  WINNEBAGOS,  WIFE  AND  CHILD. 


Indian  Village  Program 


Official  Program  of  Events  in  connection  with  the  Indian  Village 

in  Lincoln  Park,  as  announced  by 
QEO.  H.  JENNEY,  Chairman  of  the  Entertainment  Committee 


Saturday,  September  26,  9  a.  m. — Indians  arrive  at  Chicago  & 
Northwestern  Railway  Station  and  go  to  Lincoln  Park,  where  they  will 
erect  their  camp. 

Represented  in  the  party  will  be  the  following  tribes:' 

NAME    OF    TRIBE  CHIEF   IN   COMMAND 

Winnebago No=gin=kah 

Chippewa Wa=go=ne=bash  (Chicag) 

Pottawattomie Po=ka=gon 

Sac  and  Fox Push=a=ta=nee=kah 

Menominee Neopeta 

Ottawa Blackbird 

Sunday  Afternoon,  September  27. — Reunion  of  different  tribes, 
with  Indian  religious  exercises. 

Monday,  September  28,  at  10  a.  m.  and  5  p.  m.,  and  each  day  follow- 
ing until  Thursday  night,  a  program  of  events  will  be  made  up  from  the 
following  list,  varied  each  day: 

Canoe  portaging,  canoe  racing,  canoe  tilting. 

Exhibition  of  war=club  and  tomahawk  exercises. 

Bow  and  arrow  shooting. 

Gambling  games. 

Taking  down  and  erecting  wigwams  by  squaws. 

Exhibition  of  la  crosse  playing. 

Council  meeting,  with  addresses  by  the  chiefs. 

Presentation  of  Friendship  Drum. 

Dancing. 

The   following  are  the  principal   dances: 

Squaw  dance  Buffalo  dance 

Green  Corn  dance  War  dance 

Snake  dance  Scalp  dance 
Brave  Man  dance 


